Sunday, 17 January 2016

Jonathan Should Be Blamed For Lassa Fever Outbreak - Minister of Health 'Adewole'

Prof. Isaac Adewole, Nigeria's Minister of Health has blamed the ongoing Lassa fever outbreak in the country on the failure of the Goodluck Jonathan administration to implement a roadmap on health which was drawn in 2012.

Adewole, disclosed this to the Senate Committee on Health headed by Sen. Lanre Tejuoso on the latest outbreak of the disease in Nigeria; NAN reports.

Adewole put the current number of cases at 129, adding that there is no preventing vaccine but early detection would guarantee better chance of survival.

''We will concentrate on prevention because currently there is no vaccine, but as of today I have been notified of a candidate vaccine which we will put through chemical trial to find out if it would work. We call it a candidate vaccine and we would want to run it through trials and that takes some time.

''Hopefully we will do that this year, once we consider it to be effective and safe then we put it to use. If it works then that means that we would be able to immunise people in the affected areas but for now we will continue with our surveillance,” he said.